Amazing Race 8, Episode 1

I am a huge fan of this show, and it probably ranks as my fave of all the reality shows. So when I heard this one was going to have family teams of four, I was a bit nervous. I was even more nervous when I heard they were spending a good portion of the race in the USA as opposed to the usual racing all over the planet they do in other editions. I am somewhat relieved as I watched the first episode though.

The tasks were just as wacky, but in their own new way. As the ten teams of four set off at the very beginning, they were unleashed into the wilds of New York City driving to find a certain camping store and grab their supplies. This was a laugh riot as the teams kept mentioning Soho like it was some mythical place. I guess if you had never been to NYC, it may have been hard to find, but even the Paolo family, from the New York area, acted like it was some unknown place.

After that, eash team had to race to a certain hot dog vendor to get the clue that would send them to Pennsylvania. Amusingly, the hot dog vendors was the team of Kevin & Drew from Amazing Race 1! Their task in the new destination was to cross the Deleware river with a man portrarying George Washington, retrieve a thirteen star flag fromt he other side and bring it back to the original side for a folding ceremony. After that task, it was off to a camp site to spend the night with the camping gear they had gotten from the store in Soho. Some of the teams struggled with the water, and this was what made it clear that teams with small children were going to have a really tough time of it with this race. The Black family really got pushed around in the river with their two small children.

At the camp site, things got really odd. The teams had to set up their tents and have them checked out by an Eagle Scout from the Boy Scouts of America before they would receive a tag with their departure time for the next morning. No problem there, but all of a sudden as other teams arrived, they completed teams started helping the new arrivals with assembling their tents! Hello? THIS IS A RACE! You may have just unwittingly helped a better team than yours have a closer starting time to you. Not wise you idiots! I am not sure what any of them were thinking.

In the morning, the teams were instructed to drive 92 miles to Mount Joy, PA and find the Brubaker family farm. Here I will just copy from the official site’s descritption of what awaited them:

Arriving at the Brubaker farm in first place, the Weavers opened their clue to find the race’s first Detour. In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Build It and Buggy It. In Build It, Teams needed to use the materials provided to build a miniature working watermill. While not physically demanding, proper assembly could take a long time. In Buggy It, Teams had to transport a traditional Amish buggy along a 1.5-mile course with two team members riding in it. While physically demanding, Teams with enough muscle could finish quickly.

If I have learned anything from watching this show, always go with the one that sounds like Build It. The Weaver’s ran into major problems with the buggy when they tried to round a corner and the buggy went out of control. The mom fell, and was run over by the buggy. Luckily she did not got hit by any of the wheels. The Gaghan family also ended up with an advantage over families like the Aiello family, this was a task where having small children paid off. The Gaghan’s children rode in the buggy and weighed next to nothing, while the Aiellp’s were all grown men, so a lot more weight. The build it wasn’t that difficult, as most teams discovered.

After this, the teams would race to Rohrer Family Farm on Blue Rock Road in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. The biggest thing to find was the two blue silos. After all the racing, trials & tribulations, the Black family was the last team to arrive and was eliminated.

This promises to be quite the race with some interesting new aspects I hadn’t thought of. Be sure to check it out if you have a moment!